Residential Real Estate: Dirt, Debt, And Derivatives

The course’s objective is to teach the student how to develop, value, finance, and invest in residential real estate and residential real estate debt securities and derivatives as well as to understand how the US residential financing system works. Given its’ broad and deep sweep, students will learn about a wide range of topics ranging from the importance of fits and finishes in selling homes in a new subdivision, to how to entitle land, to how blockchain is being used to disrupt the mortgage origination process, to how to create an Agency residential CMO companion bond and a lot more. A range of housing types will be covered including: single family subdivisions, market rate urban condominiums, low and moderate income housing, workforce and student housing, manufactured housing, and senior residential living communities, and rental apartments. At the end of the course we will also focus on racism and real estate. The course is recommended for Columbia Business School MBA, EMBA, PhD and MSc financial engineering students who wish to understand these markets better or who want to pursue careers or side businesses in developing and/or buying residential types of real estate, and/or who wish to trade, sell, research, or institutionally invest in residential real estate securities and derivatives. Cross registrants from SIPA, the School of Engineering, Law and Journalism schools who want to better understand how housing development and the US housing finance system works are also welcome.